Story 1 Overview
Volume 1, "Death Gate Cycle"
**DRAGON WING**
by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman
published by Bantam Spectra
cover art by Keith Parkinson

Haplo's Mission Begins...

Several generations have passed since the Sartan race sundered
earth into its four elemental parts of air, fire, stone and water. The
Sartan magic has gone awry, and the Great Plan for the four realms
to support one another has failed miserably.

By Xar's command, Haplo, accompanied by his canine companion,
Dog, travel to Arianus, World of Sky, to begin his master's plan of
creating chaos and instability in the four realms in preparation for his
coming "salvation." He is to use stealth, however, keeping his identity
and power hidden from the Mensch.

Arianus, it seems, is already in a chaotic state as political intrigue
abounds in all the domains inhabited by dwarves, humans and elves.
King Stephen, a human leader, hires an assassin, Hugh the Hand, to
murder his own son. The crime is to appear as though it were done by
elves in order to justify war with the elven empire, Aristagon.
Hugh the Hand, however, would learn that this dirty deed would
be far from simplistic as he travels with the child, Bane, and Bane's
very strange chamberlain, Alfred Montbank, to the designated crime
site. It seems Bane is not the innocent, charming prince he appears to
be, and Alfred also harbors his own secrets that contradict his facade
of clumsiness and faint-heartedness.

The dwarves or Gegs in the Low Realm are also in disarray as
Limbeck Bolttightener dares question the "status quo" of Geg religion
in serving the strange Kicksey Winsey machine and doing the bidding
of the "gods" known as Welves (elves, really). Doubts abound, and the
Gegs get a firsthand encounter with other strangers who seem godlike
as well (Haplo, Hugh the Hand, Bane, and Alfred).

Even the human magicians known as the Mysteriarchs seem poised
to strike as Sinistrad, the Mysteriarchs' most powerful member, unfolds
his plan to take over Arianus and control the most valued resource, water,
by discovering and exploiting the secret of the Kicksey Winsey.
Who is Bane, and why is he to be killed? Who is Alfred, and why does
he feign incompetency? Will Hugh the Hand earn his assassin's fee or will
he get much more than he bargained for? Are there any living Sartan, or
will Haplo return empty-handed to his Lord in the Nexus?
Find out in Volume 1, DRAGON WING.